Mamata uses ‘red’ tools to combat Communists

KOLKATA: The speed at which the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is adopting the finer aspects of the communist movement, it won’t be long before party members refer to one another as comrades.

From streets plays to revolutionary songs, which were synonymous with the communist movement of the sixties and early seventies, the TMC is leaving no stone unturned in beating the red brigade in their own game. Songs like “Hei samhalho dhan ho, kashte de shan ho,” (protect your paddy and sharpen your sickle) or “Ladhai karo ladhai jata din na bijayi hoy” (fight and fight, till you are the victor) have become an integral part of any agitation staged by party chief Mamata Banerjee.

Unlike the CPI(M) programmes, in which party members themselves sing the songs and perform in street plays, in TMC functions, such songs or street plays are performed by Mamata’s new political friend — Naxalite groups. Mamata’s confidant and newfound friend, youth Naxalite leader Dola Sen is the lead singer in these functions.

However, CPI(M) leaders feel mere singing of revolutionary songs does not mean the TMC is adopting the communist ideology. “Our party is never against any development, economic or social. We have never opposed any development proposal of the Congress-ruled West Bengal government, when we were in the opposition before 1977. But the TMC here is opposing all development projects,” a CPI(M) state committee leader said.

TMC leaders, however, refused to accept that they were copying the communists. According to Mamata, revolutionary songs were not the CPI(M)’s “ancestral property”.